As announced in the previous blog, we are developing 11 new robots belonging to the Syndicate faction. The first wave of these robots is just around the corner, so today we’ll take an in-depth look at them.

General traits

In terms of offense, the most notable attribute of the hybrid Nian-Earth tech Syndicate robots is of course their specialization for firearms. These types of guns are famous for their almost negligible energy usage, their damage and versatility coming from the available ammo types, but also for their inaccuracy and short optimal range. Syndicate robots were built with this in mind, and they are also trying to compensate for the shortcomings of these weapons.

Defense-wise their main strategy is basically to not get hit. Their armor is the weakest of all the factions, and armor resistances are universal but not very high. However, this is more than made up by their low hit size, either from the get-go or via bonuses, which can be further reduced by using an evasive module.

Looking at their base speed, they are rather on the slower end, but their relatively high mass means that they won’t lose that much of that speed when you equip them.

Last but not least, their signal detection and masking values are the best in their class, making them exceptionally useful in scouting and covert operations.

TL;DR Syndicate robots are hard to hit bulletstorm glass-ninjas.

These are mostly true for the combat-type robots, but we’ll also have 5 industrial types within the Syndicate faction. They are generally intended to fill some missing roles and industrial classes, and their traits will be a mix of the Syndicate flavor and the robots of the Nian Industrial Trust.

Let’s take a look at the first 3 robots in detail. Note that the parameters can still change and we’ll revisit them once they’ve been in use for a while.

Vektor

Class: Light robot specialized in firearms

"The smallest member of our hybrid-technology fleet of robots. Its armor is weaker than the average, but its small size makes up for it, resulting in a hard to hit target. Coupled with excellent detection and masking systems, the Vektor makes not only a good scout, but a tough opponent in combat as well."

Syndicate Supplies cost

50 TM tokens

50 ICS tokens

50 ASI tokens

500,000 NIC

Ikarus

Class: Light robot specialized in transportation

"The Ikarus is a snappy answer to the Perpetuum Project's long-standing need for a fast and light transport. Its main element is a repurposed Argano-chassis, stripped of anything disposable to make room for the relatively large cargo hold. Aided by the agile undercarriage of the Laird, this is the most efficient robot to get fair-sized packages from A to B quickly. Speed comes at a price though, as the construction is very fragile."

Syndicate Supplies cost

10 TM tokens

10 ICS tokens

10 ASI tokens

100,000 NIC

Balancing and new extensions

We’re introducing two new extensions that will be required to control these robots: Syndicate combat robot control and Syndicate industrial robot control. It’s not hard to guess that these are the equivalents of the Pelistal/Nuimqol/Thelodica robot control extensions (with the same complexity of 9), but since here the combat and industrial types are part of the same faction we felt the need to split it up into two extensions. The rest of the requirements are designed to be on par with the other factions and are using the same extensions, depending on the robot’s class.

Of course the introduction of a whole new faction can’t go without some adjustments to the existing factions and robots. With each patch we’ll take a look at the balance within the actual class of robots and make changes if necessary. This not only means that we’ll balance regarding the newly added robots to try to fit them in, but we’ll also revisit the balance between the existing old factions. Finally, during or after the last waves we’ll check up on the global balance between robot classes and try to fix some long-standing issues e.g. with speeds.

Deployment

This first wave of Syndicate robots is planned to be deployed in patch 3.8, around the middle of next week, along with some fixes as usual. The exact time and date of the patch will be announced soon.

The rest of the robots will be introduced in a similar way over the next few months: a detailed writeup of the actual wave of 2 or maybe 3 robots will precede their deployment, and the waves are currently planned to be 3-5 weeks apart, depending on any additional features or fixes that may come with the patch.

Over the years we have spent on Nia, we have learnt to hijack Nian technology, turn it against themselves, and even managed to reprogram their bases and facilities to produce more weapons and hardware needed for our cause.

Now, by salvaging and disassembling Nian robots and combining them with good old Earth technology, the Syndicate hopes to surprise the enemy by fielding something they haven’t seen so far.

Soon, the Syndicate will become a full-fledged 4th faction (or 5th if we count the Nian Industrial Trust as one) with its own line of specialized robots that you can use.

Currently 11 new robots are planned, which are assembled from existing Nian robot parts, but each of them will have their own unique stats and bonuses. As you might have already guessed, a common trait, being their faction specialization, are machine guns.

Beyond mirroring the standard line of combat bots of other factions, we’re also trying to fill some roles that we didn’t have robots for thus far, like a light transport or a robot specialized for artifact exploration.

Here is a general list of what you can expect:

Vektor: light combat robot

Helix: light robot specialized for electronic warfare

Locust: assault-class combat robot

Echelon: combat mech

Callisto: mech specialized for electronic warfare

Legatus: heavy combat mech

Ikarus: fast light transport

Cronus: assault-class industrial robot suitable for both mining and harvesting

Hermes: assault-class robot specialized for artifact exploration

Daidalos: mech-class transport, aimed to fill the gap between the Sequer and the Lithus

Metis: heavy mech specialized for remote support modules

Introducing these robots into the game will happen through the Syndicate Supplies shop. First and foremost we’re planning a direct purchase for a combination of Pelistal, Nuimqol, and Thelodica faction tokens, plus a NIC fee. These robots are not indended to be rare, so the cost will be more or less in line with the other faction’s robots, and the triple-token requirement should liven up the market a bit.

Over the next few blogs we will take a detailed look at each of the robots, dive into their stats and bonuses, strengths and weaknesses, and everything you'd want to know about your new best friends.